§ Mr. Bodyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether there are available any official figures of the results of artificial fluoridation on the teeth of adults who have been digesting added fluoride from birth.
§ Mr. MoyleThe longest periods for which fluoridation schemes have been in progress are some 33 years in the United States and 23 years in this country. However, in both countries the published reports of studies in areas where the water supplies naturally contain similar proportions of fluoride ion—which is the same in all its properties whether present naturally or added artificially—have shown substantial reductions in dental caries among adult lifetime residents of various ages, compared with residents of the same ages in similar low-fluoride control areas. I therefore agree with the conclusion of the Royal College of Physicians in its report "Fluoride, Teeth and Health" (Pitman Medical, 1976)—which comprehensively reviewed these studies—that fluoride in water added or naturally present at a level of approximately 1 part per million over the years of tooth formation substantially reduces dental caries throughout life.